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trapan

Pronunciation: /tɹəˈpæn/

The English word “trapan” has 4 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. An act of entrapping or tricking; an entrapment; also, a thing which entraps or tricks; a snare or trap; a stratagem or trick.
  2. A person (or occasionally an animal) that traps or tricks another into doing something that benefits them but harms the victim; a fraudster, a swindler, a trickster.

verb

  1. To catch or entrap (a person or animal) in a snare or trap; to ensnare, to trap.
  2. To trap or trick (someone), especially by using some stratagem, into doing something that benefits the perpetrator but harms the victim; to defraud, to ensnare, to entrap, to swindle.

Etymology

The origin of the noun is uncertain; etymology 1, noun sense 2 (“person that traps or tricks another”), the original sense, was probably thieves’ cant and may be derived from trap (noun or verb). Etymology 1, noun sense 1 (“act of entrapping or tricking; thing which entraps or tricks”) is from the verb. The verb is derived from etymology 1, noun sense 2 of the noun.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.